SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Another Tibetan Monk 'Sets Himself Ablaze' in China
Incident in Ganzi in Sichuan province is the tenth reported self-immolation case to take place in the country.
Oct 26, 2011
A Tibetan Buddhist monk is said to have set himself ablaze in western China, the tenth reported ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest.
The Free Tibet, a UK-based advocacy group, said that the latest self-immolation took place on Tuesday outside a monastery in Ganzi in Sichuan province.
The city is about 150km south of Aba, the site where eight of the last nine self-immolations happened since March in protest against religious controls imposed by the Chinese government.
In a statement, Free Tibet said it had no information about the monk's name, whereabouts, or whether he survived the incident.
Government officials and police in Ganzi told the Reuters news agency that they did not know about the reported self-immolation.
"I don't know about this, and even if I did, I couldn't be loose-lipped," an official in the city's county office said.
Most people in Ganzi and neighbouring Aba are ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers, and many see themselves as members of a wider Tibetan region encompassing the official Tibetan Autonomous Region and other areas across the vast highlands of China's west.
'Wide rejection'
The series of self-immolations, at least five of them fatal, "represents a wider rejection of China's occupation of Tibet", Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, said.
Chinese government rejected the criticisms of rights groups and exiled Tibetans and has condemned the self-immolations as destructive and immoral.
Last week, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, whom China condemns as a supporter of violent separatism for his homeland, last week led hundreds of maroon-robed monks, nuns and ordinary Tibetans in prayer to mourn those who have burned themselves to death or been imprisoned.
He denies advocating violence and insists he wants only real autonomy for his homeland, from which he fled in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China has ruled Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950.
In March 2008, protests and deadly riots against the Chinese presence spread across Tibetan regions, triggering sometimes deadly confrontations with troops and police.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk is said to have set himself ablaze in western China, the tenth reported ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest.
The Free Tibet, a UK-based advocacy group, said that the latest self-immolation took place on Tuesday outside a monastery in Ganzi in Sichuan province.
The city is about 150km south of Aba, the site where eight of the last nine self-immolations happened since March in protest against religious controls imposed by the Chinese government.
In a statement, Free Tibet said it had no information about the monk's name, whereabouts, or whether he survived the incident.
Government officials and police in Ganzi told the Reuters news agency that they did not know about the reported self-immolation.
"I don't know about this, and even if I did, I couldn't be loose-lipped," an official in the city's county office said.
Most people in Ganzi and neighbouring Aba are ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers, and many see themselves as members of a wider Tibetan region encompassing the official Tibetan Autonomous Region and other areas across the vast highlands of China's west.
'Wide rejection'
The series of self-immolations, at least five of them fatal, "represents a wider rejection of China's occupation of Tibet", Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, said.
Chinese government rejected the criticisms of rights groups and exiled Tibetans and has condemned the self-immolations as destructive and immoral.
Last week, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, whom China condemns as a supporter of violent separatism for his homeland, last week led hundreds of maroon-robed monks, nuns and ordinary Tibetans in prayer to mourn those who have burned themselves to death or been imprisoned.
He denies advocating violence and insists he wants only real autonomy for his homeland, from which he fled in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China has ruled Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950.
In March 2008, protests and deadly riots against the Chinese presence spread across Tibetan regions, triggering sometimes deadly confrontations with troops and police.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk is said to have set himself ablaze in western China, the tenth reported ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest.
The Free Tibet, a UK-based advocacy group, said that the latest self-immolation took place on Tuesday outside a monastery in Ganzi in Sichuan province.
The city is about 150km south of Aba, the site where eight of the last nine self-immolations happened since March in protest against religious controls imposed by the Chinese government.
In a statement, Free Tibet said it had no information about the monk's name, whereabouts, or whether he survived the incident.
Government officials and police in Ganzi told the Reuters news agency that they did not know about the reported self-immolation.
"I don't know about this, and even if I did, I couldn't be loose-lipped," an official in the city's county office said.
Most people in Ganzi and neighbouring Aba are ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers, and many see themselves as members of a wider Tibetan region encompassing the official Tibetan Autonomous Region and other areas across the vast highlands of China's west.
'Wide rejection'
The series of self-immolations, at least five of them fatal, "represents a wider rejection of China's occupation of Tibet", Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, said.
Chinese government rejected the criticisms of rights groups and exiled Tibetans and has condemned the self-immolations as destructive and immoral.
Last week, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, whom China condemns as a supporter of violent separatism for his homeland, last week led hundreds of maroon-robed monks, nuns and ordinary Tibetans in prayer to mourn those who have burned themselves to death or been imprisoned.
He denies advocating violence and insists he wants only real autonomy for his homeland, from which he fled in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China has ruled Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950.
In March 2008, protests and deadly riots against the Chinese presence spread across Tibetan regions, triggering sometimes deadly confrontations with troops and police.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.